A+E Interactive » White Stripeshttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei
Bay Area Arts and Entertainment BlogFri, 13 Feb 2015 21:27:43 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1Review: Black Keys in Oaklandhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2012/05/05/review-black-keys-in-oakland/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2012/05/05/review-black-keys-in-oakland/#commentsSat, 05 May 2012 10:32:19 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/?p=24264By Jim Harrington jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com You can take the band out of the garage – and put it in a massive basketball arena – but you apparently can’t take the garage out of the band. Well, at least not this band.… Continue Reading →]]>By Jim Harrington
jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com
You can take the band out of the garage – and put it in a massive basketball arena – but you apparently can’t take the garage out of the band.
Well, at least not this band.
Since the release of 2010’s platinum-selling “Brothers,” the Black Keys have absolutely skyrocketed in popularity and now rank as one of the world’s biggest bands. As a result, the duo - consisting of vocalist-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney – have quickly gone from playing relatively intimate theaters to headlining one of the year’s biggest arena tours.
The Black Keys, however, remain that same bluesy garage-rock band that longtime fans fell in love with in the first place. That point was driven home during the Akron, Ohio group’s no-frills outing Friday in Oakland – which magically transformed Oracle Arena into the biggest garage on the planet.
Sure, a few of the details have changed. Auerbach and Carney are now occasionally accompanied by a pair of side musicians, bassist Gus Seyffert and keyboardist John Wood, and they’ve learned how to write songs that work on radio. Yet, the overall feel of the performance was still remarkably similar to what I experienced when I saw the Black Keys for the first time, roughly eight years ago at a club in Los Angeles.
It’s all about delivering a sense of urgency, which is accomplished with muddy, mercurial arrangements that value power over precision and wallop over wit. The vibe is straight White Stripes 101, a comparison that has dogged the Black Keys basically ever since it released its debut, “The Big Come Up,” in 2002.
The similarities extend beyond mere band size (the White Stripes were also a duo), instrumentation (a vocalist-guitarist and a drummer) and musical style (Chicago blues run through the garage-rock blender). It carries over to the amazing synergy in concert, which results in a much bigger sound than one could reasonably expect from just two players onstage.
Kicking off the roughly 80-minute main set with the “Brothers” standout “Howlin’ For You,” the Black Keys hammered the 13,000-strong audience with one rough-around-the-edges blues-rock offering after another. The group was equally fierce whether it was utilizing all four players or simply going the old-school route, with just Auerbach and Carney onstage.
The Black Keys were most successful at the start of the night, ripping and running through fan favorites (“Next Girl,” from “Brothers”), older numbers (“Same Old Thing,” from 2008’s “Attack & Release”) and newer cuts (“Run Right Back,” from last year’s “El Camino”).
Yet, the one-dimensional approach, and utter blandness of some of the compositions, grew quite tiresome as the night progressed. It was truly a case of diminishing returns, as each tune seemed to deliver a bit less than the one prior. It could be seen in the crowd’s response – or lack thereof – as the applause and general energy level began to dwindle as the show approached the finish line.
Auerbach’s guitar work grew stale first, as he seemed content to recycle the White Stripes’ Jack White, who, to be fair, was just recycling Hubert Sumlin and other blues pioneers. Then the Black Keys’ entire blues-rock sound followed suit, making one wonder how it is that this band manages to attract 13,000 people to an arena while our local blues clubs fight to stay in business.
This band, however, is a big positive for the blues. The Black Keys – following in the footprints of Cream, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and too many other rock acts to mention – is certainly helping to pass along the blues to some new listeners. Hopefully, they’ll like what they hear and be motivated to explore the genre more fully.
Follow Jim Harrington at http://twitter.com/jimthecritic, www.facebook.com/jim.bayareanews and http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/concerts.]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2012/05/05/review-black-keys-in-oakland/feed/11Alicia Keys, Jack White perform `James Bond’: Watch it!http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/10/10/alicia-keys-jack-white-perform-james-bond-watch-it/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/10/10/alicia-keys-jack-white-perform-james-bond-watch-it/#commentsFri, 10 Oct 2008 07:29:28 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://www.ibabuzz.com/concerts/?p=1190

The pairing of Alicia Keys with Jack White sounds like an awful idea. But it’s not. Check out the video for the newest James Bond film theme, “Another Way To Die.” It appears in the terrible sounding film, “Quantum of… Continue Reading →

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The pairing of Alicia Keys with Jack White sounds like an awful idea. But it's not. Check out the video for the newest James Bond film theme, "Another Way To Die." It appears in the terrible sounding film, "Quantum of Solice." The Bond films, by the way, need to stop. Now.
Let me know what you think of the video. You'll find it below.
]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/10/10/alicia-keys-jack-white-perform-james-bond-watch-it/feed/0Alicia KeysJimmy Page, Jack White, The Edge in new filmhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/08/19/jimmy-page-jack-white-the-edge-in-new-film/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/08/19/jimmy-page-jack-white-the-edge-in-new-film/#commentsTue, 19 Aug 2008 07:01:04 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://www.ibabuzz.com/concerts/?p=743

A heavily edited version of a press release I received: From Academy Award winning director, Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos –… Continue Reading →

]]>A heavily edited version of a press release I received:
From Academy Award winning director, Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos - Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2) and Jack White (The White Stripes).
Avoiding the traditional â€˜talking headsâ€™ documentary style, the film captures the guitarists as each explains and demonstrates how he changed the sound of the electric guitar to suit his own distinctive musical style.
Concentrating on the artist's musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist.
The movie revolves around a singular day when Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play. Shot in London , Dublin , Nashville and Los Angeles , the film has begun generating worldwide industry buzz.
To date, the bands of Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White have sold more than 500 million albums worldwide. The movie is scheduled to make itâ€™s world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/08/19/jimmy-page-jack-white-the-edge-in-new-film/feed/18The EdgeJimmy PageJack WhiteRaconteurs perform free Web concerthttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/05/27/raconteurs-perform-free-web-concert/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/05/27/raconteurs-perform-free-web-concert/#commentsTue, 27 May 2008 19:24:11 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://www.ibabuzz.com/concerts/2008/05/27/raconteurs-perform-free-web-concert/

(Press release as follows:) THE RACONTEURS LIVE CONCERT WEBCAST ON NPR MUSIC TONIGHT, MAY 27 CONCERT FROM 9:30 CLUB AVAILABLE AT NPR.org NPR Music is live webcasting The Raconteurs in concert tonight at www.NPR.org/music, as part of its popular â€œLive… Continue Reading →

]]>(Press release as follows:)
THE RACONTEURS LIVE CONCERT WEBCAST ON NPR MUSIC TONIGHT, MAY 27
CONCERT FROM 9:30 CLUB AVAILABLE AT NPR.org
NPR Music is live webcasting The Raconteurs in concert tonight at www.NPR.org/music, as part of its popular â€œLive in Concertâ€ series. The sold-out show from Washington, D.C.â€™s renowned 9:30 Club will begin at approximately 10:00PM (ET). All Songs Consideredâ€™s Bob Boilen hosts the concert, which will be streamed live and archived at www.NPR.org/music
In 2005, Jack White of The White Stripes formed The Raconteurs with solo artist Brendan Benson, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack â€œLJâ€ Lawrence, both of the Cincinnati rock band The Greenhornes. For The Raconteurs, White and Benson share songwriting and vocal credits, a collaboration they detailed in a recent NPR interview: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89575224 The band is touring around its latest record, Consolers of the Lonely, a much-anticipated follow up to its acclaimed debut Broken Boy Soldiers.
NPR Musicâ€™s â€œLive in Concertâ€ series, produced by the popular music program All Songs Considered, launched in January 2005 and has featured more than 100 live events to date. In March, NPR Music traveled to Austin, TX, to live webcast and broadcast 14 concerts from the influential music festival South by Southwest, among them R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver and Yo La Tengo. All of the concerts and interviews with bands are archived at www.NPR.org/music; select performances are also available for free download podcast. Video sessions from SXSW have also recently been added. Also new to the â€œLive in Concertâ€ series are shows from DeVotchKa, The Black Keys and Lou Reed.
The â€œLive in Concertâ€ series is one feature of NPR Music, a free, multimedia music discovery Web site at www.NPR.org/music The site offers content from NPR and 12 NPR Member public radio stations, as well as original-to-NPR Music features such as live performances, studio sessions, interviews, reviews and blogs. Specific sections of the site are dedicated to rock/pop/folk, classical, jazz/blues, world and urban music.]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/05/27/raconteurs-perform-free-web-concert/feed/0RaconteursAre you listening? The top 10 CDs of 2007http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/01/07/are-you-listening-the-top-10-cds-of-2007/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/01/07/are-you-listening-the-top-10-cds-of-2007/#commentsMon, 07 Jan 2008 08:26:38 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://www.ibabuzz.com/concerts/2008/01/07/are-you-listening-the-top-10-cds-of-2007/

Letâ€™s hear it for the ladies. In all my years of drawing up records-of-the-year lists, Iâ€™ve never seen the X chromosome so well represented as on my tally for 2007. My top 10 includes four female solo artists, two all-gal… Continue Reading →